snippets of organic and inorganic residual matter that is related to the creative ideal

Sunday, 22 July 2012

trip to Liverpool

So, I went to Liverpool. The weather was pleasant, warm and unseasonably sunny for the north-west of England.. I wanted to see the Monet, Twombly and Turner show at the Tate but ended up seeing the Rolf Harris thing at the Walker Art Gallery. I went with family so had to accommodate my kin for the day which was nice.

We headed straight to the Tate and seeing that part of the show was downstairs I peaked my head in and so some lovely Twombly and a few Turners but a gallery assistant turned around and ordered me out. My two companions didn't want to see the exhibition and with a heavy heart, we went to see the DLA/Piper Sculpture show which is on two floors.

Marianne Faithfull had the use of one room and Philip Treacy had the others..it was a smorgasboard of Pop Art, Dada and Installation. It was like an encylopediac history of contemporary art brought to life..one word, [outstanding].

photos soon...

We went to the Slave Museum and the Titanic thing at the Maritime Museum soon after and went to the Bluecoat for tea and scones. The Slave Museum is, as you'd expect, was emotional and disturbing. I enjoyed the Maritime bit and had a chuckle at the 'Hello Sailor' exhibit that shows the gay side of the industry..this pretty pink slinky number and silver sequined hi-heels strategically placed on the bed and Barbara Striesand records adoining the wall particularly tickled me.

En route to the new Museum of Liverpool is a often forgotten installation of a World War II house full of furniture and fittings which was a nice diversion..the museum is still not open.

The Bluecoat had a BookSale on and after half hour of rooting I found a 1950's erotic magazine the size of A5 called Spick and which is rather soft-core and not very sexy really, perfect collage material. We bypassed the exhibition here and went straight to the Walker Gallery.

After seeing his shows and now seeing his art, I think Rolf is a capable artist but hasn't developed a real style of his own, every painting is in the style of someone else, Ruebens etal. I just don't feel an attachment to this work, at all..the more I think of it, it's like an A-Level art student copying work from postcards when he should be evolving his own style..

The rest of the Walker was satisfactory and having the John Moores winners on show, topped my day trip of to a T.